On Friday, a segment on The O'Reilly Factor featured producer Jesse Watters speaking with protesters at the Occupy Wall Street demonstration and concluding that they are the "sludge" of "every single left-wing cause" put into a blender. The segment was clearly intended to cast the protesters in a negative light.

Fox News has begun attacking participants of the "Occupy Wall Street" protests across the country, claiming they are "deluded" and have "absolutely no purpose or focus in life." Fox's attacks stand in stark contrast with its relentless promotion and support of the tea party protests of 2009 and 2010.

The January 22 edition of Fox News' On the Record claimed to offer, in host Greta Van Susteren's words, "the inside story" behind Republican Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts special Senate election "from people who know him best." But Van Susteren offered an extremely positive view of Brown, broadcast from the gym at the high school he attended and featuring interviews with Brown and the strategist and chief legal counsel for his campaign, as well as Brown's high school basketball coach and "the man credited with getting Scott Brown to join the National Guard."

TPM Media's Zachary Roth reported earlier in the week that the political action committee that organized the Tea Party Express -- Our Country Deserves Better PAC -- funneled almost two-thirds of its spending from July to November back to the political consulting firm from which it was spawned, Russo, Marsh, and Associates. More than $850,000 of the money the supposedly grassroots PAC collected went to the firm of GOP political operatives who ran it.

For those who may have forgotten, the Tea Party Express was the faux-grassroots operation that Fox News hopped aboard in late August, after the network's promotion of the health care town hall meeting disruptions but before they started flogging the 9-12 protest. (It's so hard to keep Fox's political activism straight!) It was a nationwide bus tour organized by a political action committee whose mission is to oppose President Obama and other Democrats; with a pedigree like that, how could Fox resist?

Fox News heavily promoted the Tea Party Express; the Our Country Deserves Better PAC even used Fox's promotion in a fundraising email. Then Fox's Griff Jenkins hit the trail with the Express, following that bus around the country, throwing journalistic integrity aside as he declared its riders "the America that Washington forgot."

But somehow, Jenkins missed out on the real story: how loyal tea-party-goers were separated from their hard-earned cash, which was funneled to fat cat Republican political consultants. Russo, Marsh, and Associates salutes you, Fox News. They could have scammed the tea partiers without you, but it probably wouldn't have been nearly as lucrative.

We just received the following behind the scenes footage from an anonymous tipster showing what appears to be a Fox News producer encouraging a crowd to scream and holler during a "report" by Fox News' Griff Jenkins at the 9/12 protest:

Here's how it looked on Fox News:

We would expect that type of behavior from a producer of, say, a daytime talk show with a live studio audience like Oprah or Maury or Jerry, but from a cable news producer? Really?

I guess it wasn't enough for Fox News to promote the hell out of Glenn Beck's 9/12 death march – they also needed to incite the crowd – you know, get them nice and pumped up so they'd looked good for the cameras.

Despite his claim to be "simply reporting" on the Tea Party Express rallies, Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins, who is traveling with the cross-country protest bus tour, has repeatedly expressed support for the protesters, who he has referred to as "the America that Washington forgot." Fox News has consistently promoted the Tea Party Express -- which is organized by a political action committee whose mission is to oppose President Obama and other Democrats -- as well as other "tea party" protests.

On August 28, Fox News devoted live coverage and publicity to the kickoff of the Tea Party Express, a bus tour organized by the Republican PAC Our Country Deserves Better, whose mission is to oppose President Obama and the Democrats. Fox News' kickoff coverage follows numerous promotions of the tour on Fox News, Fox Business, The Fox Nation, and FoxNews.com.

The New York Times was forced to issue two corrections after relying on Capitol Hill anonymous sourcing for its flawed report on emails from former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The Clinton debacle is the latest example of why the media should be careful when relying on leaks from partisan congressional sources -- this is far from the first time journalists who did have been burned.

Several Fox News figures are attempting to shift partial blame onto Samuel DuBose for his own death at the hands of a Cincinnati police officer during a traffic stop, arguing DuBose should have cooperated with the officer's instructions if he wanted to avoid "danger."

Iowa radio host Steve Deace is frequently interviewed as a political analyst by mainstream media outlets like NPR, MSNBC, and The Hill when they need an insider's perspective on the GOP primary and Iowa political landscape. However, these outlets may not all be aware that Deace gained his insider status in conservative circles by broadcasting full-throated endorsements of extreme right-wing positions on his radio show and writing online columns filled with intolerant views that he never reveals during main stream media appearances.